An Arts & Crafts Yorkshire School English Oak Dining Table by Don 'Foxman' Craven (Ex-Mouseman) c 1970. A very decorative richly coloured table in the classic Yorkshire School style. Round tables are far more sociable that typical rectangular ones, allowing everyone to see and talk to each other, and more flexible in terms of seating numbers and positions. Featuring:

• Solid English Oak throughout.

• Very well figured quarter-sawn English Oak (quarter-sawing is a way of sawing oak to produce boards with superior strength which also reveals decorative 'medullary rays' in its grain).

• Cruciform trestle base with sledge feet.

• Circular top made out of just five continuous pieces of very well figured quarter-sawn solid timber.

• Traditional blind tenons secured with hand made pegs.

Approximate dimensions are:

• Overall Height 740mm (2 feet 5 inches) [A standard height for a dining table].

• Overall Diameter 1220mm (4 feet).

c 1970.

Don Craven's finely carved bushy tailed fox motif.

Very good condition with excellent rich colour and grain, tight joints and clean finish. A few minor marks and dints discoverable upon close inspection, although less than expected for its age. If you wish to have further specific photographs or talk to us for a more detailed condition report then please do not hesitate to contact us.

A former Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson craftsman (and the original "Foxman", prior to Malcolm Pipes using a fox's face) who set up his own workshop at Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, continuing to make high quality oak furniture in the Yorkshire School tradition until 1976. His work is signed with his carved seated fox motif.

The most British of woods, that can produce really special results. English oak has been used for hundreds of years to construct everything from sea-going vessels to fine furniture. Although oak grows widely across Europe and North America, craftsmen continue to cherish English oak which grows more slowly than its foreign counterparts giving it strength, durability. Quarter sawn boards are very straight grained and have distinctive growth rings and medullary rays that give a very beautiful effect as well as being renowned for their superior stability and strength.

The Yorkshire School of the Arts & Crafts movement started with Robert 'Mouseman' Thompson's  transformation from jobbing carpenter to master craftsmen. By the mid-1920s he had adopted his trademark mouse (now world renowned as a symbol of quality furniture) and had his own workshop busily employing several men. As the workshop grew and over the years many of the craftsmen have taken their skills and branched out and adopted a trademark of their own, a fox, a lizard, a fish, a rabbit to name but a few, and whilst some have closely stuck to the Mouseman designs others have taken the style and adapted it. Other craftsmen, unconnected to the Mouseman workshop, have also chosen the classic Yorkshire Oak style as their own. Typical Yorkshire school items are in English Oak, with traditional pegged joints and adzed surfaces.